The present invention relates to sand sculptures, particularly to cold water-soluble non-toxic adhesive materials that facilitate the building of sand sculptures, and more particularly to the selection of particular adhesives that are easy to use and provide strength to sand sculptures as they dry, while subsequently allowing the sand sculptures to be broken down by rain, by submersion in the rising tide or by exposure to any other source of water.
Devices and compositions for facilitating sand sculpting have been described in the prior art.
Demarzo in U.S. Pat. No. 6,126,876 describes a system for creating a mold and using that mold with successive additions of sand and water to form a packed column of sand for sculpting.
Kelly et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,293 describe a product using a dry granular treated sand, e.g., a specialized non-wettable sand, that retains its cohesiveness when submerged in water. A compressible receptacle is used for allowing a cohesive mass of such treated sand to be forced out of a nozzle immersed in water.
Browning in U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,795 describes a sand-based molding composition that is formed by combining a solvent, a waxy binder, and sand. The solvent is removed to leave the wax-coated sand that can be compressed to form a molded article.
Weggel in U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,750 describes a non-toxic sand additive including either gelatin, ordinary cooking flour or corn starch that improves the adhesion of ordinary sand, and that is mixed with a small quantity of water to form a sticky paste which is then mixed with beach sand for building sand sculptures. The preferred embodiment of the additive includes gelatin, salt and sand.
A keyword search of the terms “sand and cornstarch” or “sandcastle” provided a number of Internet addresses such as <www.bydonovan.com/sand.html> and www.kidssdomain.com/craft/sandtreasure.html> that describe the combination of corn starch, sand and water with or without the addition of alum. Unlike the cornstarch mixture of Weggel, the cornstarch-sand mixture described herein is cooked, and the resulting mixture thickens and becomes tacky, causing adhesion of the sand particles for sand sculpting.
While some of the above references describe environmentally friendly and non-toxic combinations of ingredients for sand sculpting, each composition or method of utilizing the composition has limitations that are explained in detail below.